Does Santa put slacking bloggers on the naughty list? If so, I'm screwed. But... but... it's really not my fault! I've been too busy lately even to read many blogs, let alone write in my own. (I realize maybe I need to rearrange that priority list.) And when I do get a little time to myself, I need to relax and play some Sims 3!

My current Sim family consists of a mom and a dad, a teenage daughter and two younger girls. They had outgrown their house, so the other night I set out to explore my Sim town and find an unoccupied house that could better accommodate them. I ended up finding them a three bedroom, two bath house with a study that could be converted to a fourth bedroom, that was well within their price range, and it happened to be right next door to their existing house.

The next day I was thinking about this and realized something strangely coincidental. In 1987, my family consisted of my parents, my teenage sister, myself (8) and my younger sister (4). And that summer, we moved... to the house next door.

Now, at the time I was playing the game the thought never crossed my mind of how similar my Sims' family make-up and moving situation was to that of my own family back then. But do you think this is just pure coincidence, or perhaps my subconscious mind at work? Obviously I had no control over the gender of the children (they were born in-game), but do you think maybe when they all turned out to be girls, my subconscious mind noticed the similarity to my own family at that time and influenced me to check out the house next door, and then to select it after looking at only one other house, even though there were many more available? I can't help but wonder...

A couple of slight tweaks to the site today as I move further away from the focus on making a profit online. I have left Entrecard and removed the widget from the sidebar. In its place I have listed a couple of ways you can help confoozled.com pay its own bills, along with a link to a page which describes more options in that department. I got rid of the cheesy banner near the top of the sidebar which used to link to said page, because I think most people's brains are trained to dismiss such images as ads, thus you don't even see them.

You might notice that the confoozled.com arcade has been removed from the list of ways you can help the site earn money. This is because it was becoming a nightmare to maintain and keep all of those games from eating up all of my server space, as well as the fact that in the time it's been online, it has earned me all of three cents. I have to earn $100 to be paid, and it's just not going to happen. The arcade is still online right now, but I will eventually take it down. I might replace it with a simpler version, so if you play the current arcade and have any favorite games you'd like me to keep around, be sure to let me know.

Just FYI, I had a difficult time using the arcade at home. The few times I accessed it saw my laptop's fan go into overdrive and for the most part, using the arcade made the laptop really hot. Kind of like when I go to site that has hundreds of links embedded in it, like alltop.com. I'm sure this is an issue of my laptop...simply not enough RAM for some sites.

There's only been one entry into the Blockbuster GC giveaway so far... don't you people want free movie rentals?! If you're worried about registering on the arcade, don't be. It's hosted on my own server, and the only person who will ever see your personal information is me. I'll be perfectly honest and tell you that the purpose of this contest is to get people to register on the arcade so that I can send out updates on the best new games, and keep you coming back to play! Because if you don't play, then I don't make money, and I have to at least make back the $45 I spent to get it up and running. Actually, scratch that... I have to make $100 to even get paid, so you guys have some serious time wasting to do.

Of course, I go from nothing to write about earlier this week, to having all sorts of entries in mind and no time to write! For now, I'm going to have to point you to my current favorite game on the new arcade, Reactor. It's a puzzle/strategy game that is highly addictive, and infuriating at the same time. My highest score so far is 691, and I'm pretty sure that was a fluke. Can you beat it?

I love Flash games - you know, those fun little time waster games you play online? And now there's a new place you can go to play them, and help confoozled.com make a little money along the way. The games on the new confoozled.com arcade are completely free to play, and are supported by short video ads which play before each game begins. There are a lot of fun games, more added automatically every day, and even more available... so if you'd like to see more of a particular type of game, just let me know!

The arcade is not running perfectly yet and some games seem to just load a blank page. I don't know why this happens, but I can fix it by deleting and re-adding the game. If you encounter any of these, please let me know the title of the game and I will take care of it.

I feel a week of rants coming on. Today it's about digital rights management, otherwise known as DRM.

When most people think of DRM, they think of music downloads bought from places like iTunes, which come with built-in restrictions on where and how you can use the songs. They allow the music to only be played in certain software or on certain portable devices, or limit how many times you can burn a song to CD. Many people feel that DRM violates consumers' rights, because fair use laws say if we buy music, we have a right to listen to it in any way we want. They also argue that when paying customers are treated like criminals while people who steal music are free to use it however they choose, it doesn't make a very strong case against piracy.

But DRM isn't just for music. A DRM technology called SecuROM surfaced a few years ago which is used to control use of software bought on CD or DVD - usually games. Among other things, one of its jobs is to check to make sure the original disc, not a copy, is in the drive before allowing the software to run. The problem with that is that there are many things - some of them beyond a user's control - that can make SecuROM think that the wrong disc is inserted, when in fact it is the correct one. People have also reported SecuROM causing other problems, such as interfering with the functioning of anti-virus software.

As you may know, my PC gaming passion lies in one game: The Sims (currently in its second incarnation with a third due out early next year). This is a game which has expansion packs released every six months or so which expand the complexity and content of the game. The last two or three expansions for The Sims 2 have come with SecuROM protection. I'd heard all of the horror stories about SecuROM, but had managed to avoid being bitten by it... until now. I bought the final expansion, Apartment Life, a couple of months ago but had been too busy to play it. After my computer nightmare, I started to get the itch. So I finally installed it. When I tried to run the game, I received the dreaded error message. SecuROM was unable to locate the disc.

For some reason all the stores seem to be starting the Black Friday madness early this year. Instead of reducing prices for Christmas shopping starting the day after Thanksgiving, many of them started as early as the first of November. I was just checking out the Sears Black Friday Sale, and this week they have a couple of great gift items on sale.

First they have a Nintendo Wii system for $249.99. If anybody on your list does not have a Wii yet, you absolutely need to get them one. This system has gotten people playing who never had any interest in video games before. We even had Chris' parents playing on ours one evening after they had been helping us paint the hallway. I'm not able to play most of the physical games for it, but I do love Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, which is mostly point and click. I also enjoy just using the built-in web browser to surf the internet on our TV screen, and Chris and I have made a dinnertime tradition of using it to share funny videos and photos with each other that we have discovered during the day. It's so much more fun to share things like that in person and laugh together, than to just send an e-mail.

They also have 8.1MP point-and-shoot Samsung digital cameras for $99.99. They come in a choice of two pretty pastel colors: pink or blue. These are great starter cameras for teenagers or even older folks who just need a basic camera. Pocket-sized cameras like this are also good for gimpy people like me who enjoy taking pictures but can't handle the weight of a more professional camera. Chris and I own a Canon mini-SLR, but since I can't even pick it up I use a cheap little crappy Polaroid point-and-shoot, which takes okay photos but is slow, and severely lacking in the video department. Something like this would be a nice upgrade.

These deals are only around while supplies last, so if they are at all appealing to you, you'd better hurry up and get to Sears!

I have always had a semi-luke warm interest in owning a gaming system, like the Nintendo Wii, but I've always shyed away from buying one, as I'm afraid of getting bored with it after a while, and also, cause of the expense of buying the different games. I remember when I owned a Game Boy..buying the cartridges, getting bored with bum games, losing cartridges. About the only game I ever really liked on the Game Boy was Tetris. I think I would enjoy the hand-held PSP games I see, but, again...it seems owning these games continues to cost and cost until the whole system becomes outdated replaced with the latest next big thing. Shoots...I remember when Atari and Intellivision game sets were considered cutting edge, along with Commodore 64 systems! BTW, Carly, I was real close to Sheridan today (was within a block)...I was gonna stop in a surprise you and see your new look (glasses) but I figured you might take me to be a freak!!

My latest time-waster game obsession is Diner Dash: Seasonal Snack Pack. I'm a huge fan of all of the Diner Dash games, and this one is no exception. In this installment, Flo and Grandma Florence reminisce about their favorite seasons in Dinertown, and some of the seasonally themed restaurants they helped save. Among the restaurants are a summer cafe at a water park, a haunted mansion and a romantic rendezvous. I just finished the first restaurant (the water park) this weekend, and already can't wait to go home and keep playing!

Check out this video of Kyle aka "0nehandedbandit" from AbleGamers playing Guitar Hero, on the hard difficulty level, with one hand (and one foot)...

He's using a foot pedal designed by Ben Heck to replace the strumming technique that is usually done with the second hand on the traditional guitar controller. I want one! Unfortunately Ben does not have anyone to manufacture his pedal in mass quantities and must build each one himself. Kyle had to wait a long time for his. Anyone out there want to help him start mass producing these things so I can get my hands on one?

I only worked a half day today, because over the morning hours I developed a headache that created such severe pain in my eye sockets that I felt sick to my stomach. (Extreme pain usually has one of two possible outcomes for me: I lose consciousness or I throw up.) Pain killers, ice packs, dimming the lights, all the usual remedies had no effect, so I finished up everything that absolutely had to be done, and went home at lunch time.

Food and a nap finally brought some relief, and then I was stuck in that state I get into far too often when I haven't been feeling well: too awake to sleep, but too tired to really get up and do anything. When that happens to me I like to plop myself in front of my computer and play these fun little time waster games, like the one I played today:

This isn't the Game of Life® board game you're used to. It takes the classic board game concept and combines it with elements of life simulation (like The Sims) and time management games like Diner Dash. Each space on the game board is a level you have to play, where you try to balance and meet the needs of other "pegs" in your family, as well as school and/or career. You earn points for answering the requests of your family members, teachers and bosses, with bonus points for speed, each level having a minimum score needed to move forward.

There are also several mini-games included, which are revealed each time you complete an orange level on the board. The mini-games require tickets to play, which you are able to win after each green level.

It's a lot of fun and really addictive! My eyeballs are all dry because I don't think I've blinked in at least three hours.

UPDATE 9/20/2008: I must have been tired last night, because I forgot to mention that you can use coupon code AFFI000NFPG to get $5 off this or any other PlayFirst game until November 1!